How to Get Laptops, Sequencers and other DYI or commercial synthesizers to ‘play nice’ together.

In my studio or live performance rig, I rarely use MIDI over USB. I use MIDI DIN cables. Why you may ask? Latency and Noise. USB is inherently noisy, especially on my iMacs. All sorts of ground issues occur, so I tend to wire everything with 5 pin MIDI=DIN cables. They are highly reliable and with good hardware they are fast and I have never had any noise or control issues when using them. I also never daisy chain my synths to save a buck either. That is the building of a a chain of MIDI signals going from the input of synth 1, then output or thru to synth 2 input, then out from synth 2 to the input of synth 3…. etc, etc. This will sooner of later bite you when latency appears. Your timing may be off between when the original MIDI signal was sent, until it hits the end of your synth chain. I use a good hub and ensure the signals are near simultaneously received.

MIDI, CV and USB Utilities

So you have built your synthesizer, and you want to be able to play it using the latest Arturia Keystep, or Ableton Live or maybe even a Linnstrument. Well, no worries as there are a lot of interfaces out there. There are some commercial companies like Kenton , who make various MIDI, USB and CV products. But the costs can start to add up, buying interfaces for various requirements, especially if you don’t use many of the features. But there are however, quite a few interfaces you can make yourself.

MIDI (DIN) to CV Projects.

USB (MIDI) to CV Projects.

  • CVPal  These are great for connecting an older non-MIDI capable synth to Ableton. Very quiet, but watch out for possible latency with the PC/Laptop USB.

MIDI (DIN) Splitters: Send your control output to multiple synths simultaneously.

Commercial MIDI Utilities that I can recommend:

CV to MIDI or Visa-Versa

  • Kenton Pro CV to MIDI  These are great for capturing CV & Gate signals from analog equipment to use as MIDI supply for performance or working in Ableton.
  • Kenton Pro Solo Mk3  Bulletproof, very low latency devices are great.

MIDI Hubs

  • Kenton Thru-25  I use this in my studio and allows me to connect a MIDI supply to 25 different synthesizers, recording devices. Never worry about latency with these.
  • MIDI Solutions Merger    This device merges two MIDI sources with its two output channels. You can use it to supply the MIDI signals from two different controllers. The keyword here is ‘Merger’ as it will merge both inputs to both outputs simultaneously.
  • MIDI Solutions Quadra Merge  The same functionality as the Merger, but utilizes four inputs with the 2 outputs.
  • MIDI Solutions Event Processor Plus   This fabulous device allows me to take MIDI commands from a controller and map them to a different command for the instrument. Example: Say your synthesizer does not accept breath controller MIDI commands. With this you can map the Breath Control CC-2 to MIDI CC-7 and have it effect the volume of the synthesizer.